Willis E. Lamb, Jr., the Hydrogen Atom, and the Lamb
Shift

Willis E. Lamb, Jr., was awarded the 2000 National Medal of Science
for "his towering contributions to classical and quantum theories
of laser radiation and quantum optics, and to the proper interpretation
of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. ... The National Medal of Science,
established by Congress in 1959 and administered for the President
by the National Science Foundation, is the nation's highest scientific
honor."

Courtesy W.E. Lamb, Jr.

In 1955, Lamb won the Nobel
Prize in Physics for his discoveries concerning "the fine structure
of the hydrogen atom and discovery of a phenomenon called the Lamb shift,
which revolutionized
the quantum theory of matter." He shared the prize with Polykarp
Kusch who
won for ‘his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the
electron'.

‘[Lamb] joined the Columbia
University physics faculty in 1938. From 1943 to 1951,
he worked with the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. There his defense-related
research focused on
the problem of how to make shorter, higher frequency microwave sources
for radar - and it led to his Nobel Prize-winning work. ...

In April 1947 - "I remember it was on a Saturday," Lamb
said -- his experiment succeeded. It revealed the minute but significant
shift of energy in the hydrogen
atom in different states.

Two months later, Lamb was invited to present his work at a historically
famous conference on Shelter Island, New York, a conference subsidized
by the National Academy of Sciences to explore directions for research
in the post-war era. ...

Lamb's discovery of the quantum effect that became known as the "Lamb
shift" led physicists to rethink the basic concepts behind the application
of quantum theory to electromagnetism. His work became one of the foundations
of quantum electrodynamics, a key aspect of modern elementary particle
physics.

Lamb wrote a series of remarkable papers published in the Physical Review
from 1947 - 1953 that were regarded as immediate classics by all working
in atomic physics, said UA [University of Arizona] physics Professor William
H. Wing. ... Wing noted that in papers published as early as 1939, at age
26, Lamb predicted what more than 20 years later became known as the Mossbauer
Effect (aka the Lamb-Dicke-Mossbauer Effect). ...

Lamb continued working in the general area of atomic spectroscopy and
theoretical laser physics as a member of the Stanford University
faculty (1951-56) and as professor and Fellow of New College
at the University of Oxford, England (1956-62). At Yale
University, Lamb was Henry Ford II Professor of Physics (1962-72)
and J. Willard
Gibbs Professor of Physics (1972-74.) ... Lamb, Regents' Professor
of physics and optical sciences, joined the University
of Arizona in 1974. ...

Lamb's honors and awards include the 1992 Einstein Medal given by the
Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics, the Guthrie Award
from the Physical Society of London, election to the National
Academy of Sciences,
a 1999 Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America, a
Fellow of the American Physical Society,
and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. ...
He was named Regents' Professor at UA in 1990.'